{"id":14585,"date":"2018-02-10T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14585"},"modified":"2018-02-12T14:56:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T20:56:56","slug":"danica-patrick-is-all-systems-godaddy-for-the-great-american-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/10\/danica-patrick-is-all-systems-godaddy-for-the-great-american-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Danica Patrick is all systems Go(Daddy) for the Great American Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Dressed simply in blue jeans and a black polo shirt with a GoDaddy-green sponsor patch, Danica Patrick<\/strong> addressed the assembled NASCAR<\/a> media Friday morning \u2013 one of the last times she will do so as a professional race car driver.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 Aspen Dental Ford, speaks during a press conference announcing her retirement from full-time racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 17, 2017 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The last time she formally took questions at the November season-finale in Homestead, Fla., she was at times visibly emotional about this important decision in her career. On Saturday, however, Patrick, 35, was businesslike and frank in addressing her final NASCAR start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much loaded emotion in that [Homestead] weekend, that to me had a lot of a feel for kind of the end on some level, of racing in the Cup Series,” Patrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say I\u2019ll be fine and I\u2019m excited and I mean like, okay, everybody in the room, imagine when you leave here on Sunday, you don\u2019t have anything to do really for a couple of months. Seems pretty exciting, doesn\u2019t it? Right? That\u2019s how I feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think when next Sunday comes, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be a lot more retrospective or introspective and emotional about the finality of it and you know; just have a little bit more perspective. But right now, I\u2019m fine. I\u2019m good. I\u2019m excited about it all. I made the decision last year that this is what I was good with. Otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t have been doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Danica Patrick, driver of the #7 GoDaddy Chevrolet, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Patrick will make her final NASCAR start driving the No. 7 GoDaddy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Premium Motorsports in next week\u2019s Daytona 500. The deal with the team was announced Jan. 22 \u2013 days after her former, longtime sponsor GoDaddy had announced it would be supporting Patrick in her Daytona farewell.<\/p>\n

The news that Patrick would stop racing after such a decorated, celebrated and successful career was emotional for her, stunning to her fans and important in the sport.<\/p>\n

Patrick is the answer to a multitude of historical racing statistics.<\/p>\n

She is the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 \u2013 19 laps en route to a fourth-place finish in her 2005 debut – and answered that with the highest ever finish for a woman \u2013 third place in 2009.<\/p>\n

The year before, she earned huge headlines and hero status to girls around the globe with a victory in the 2008 IndyCar Series\u2019 race at Motegi, Japan.<\/p>\n

She will make her final racing start in May, in this year\u2019s Indianapolis 500 but first, there is a lot of expectation for her last NASCAR start here in Daytona Beach.<\/p>\n

Patrick started the 2013 Daytona 500 from the pole position \u2013the first woman in history to do that – and properly punctuated the milestone with an eighth-place finish, also best ever for a woman in this race.<\/p>\n

All the success and historic moments Patrick has earned have encouraged other young women and girls to consider auto racing as a career option. But just as she has always maintained, providing inspiration is a positive offshoot, but still isn\u2019t and never was her primary motivation. She just loves to race, to contend, to win.<\/p>\n

In nearly every press conference she participates there are questions about how she has inspired others, what advice she may give a young woman who wished to race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that if there is one difference, I feel it is that you have to get a team behind you, to believe in you and maybe it\u2019s a little harder because women have not proved themselves as much as men, but every driver has to prove themselves to their team,” Patrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still that responsibility and that challenge is still at hand for every single driver to find a group that believes in them and gives them what they need and puts them in the right scenario. Perhaps it\u2019s a little bit harder for me, just based on history, but I\u2019ve had great opportunities as a driver. Sometimes I think it\u2019s been better than others, but that could probably be said for every single driver out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has lived and prevailed in this ultimate racing dichotomy. <\/p>\n

Should women feel extra pressure to succeed?<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if they feel like they do, I mean I really believe that,” Patrick said. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt like that.  I don\u2019t.  My own banner is bigger than any other banner for what I want to accomplish for myself and then the trickle-down effect is what it is.  But, no one expects more than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That expectation here at Daytona is high and qualified.<\/p>\n

She ran 31st in Saturday\u2019s opening practice \u2013 turning eight laps. The focus at this time is getting her car faster, earning a decent starting position in Sunday\u2019s pole qualifying and Thursday\u2019s Duel 150-mile qualifying races and then preparing for the sport\u2019s greatest race, her last race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of time to mentally transition, and that transition started last year,” Patrick said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m good. I\u2019m ready. But, we just have to keep my dad away from me, to be honest. He\u2019s always the emotional one that\u2019s going to be like all choked-up and tearing with sunglasses and crunching on his water bottle and he\u2019s going to be like, \u2018just have fun out there!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, I\u2019m going to be like, \u2018gosh keep it together because I have to.\u2019 So, I\u2019m sure my whole family will, but I know my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when it\u2019s all done next Sunday afternoon?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I really hope that I finish and that I\u2019m hopefully in contention,” Patrick said. \u201cThat\u2019s really my hope for the Daytona 500.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Dressed simply in blue jeans and a black polo shirt with a GoDaddy-green sponsor patch, Danica Patrick addressed the assembled NASCAR media Friday morning \u2013 one of the last times she will do so as a professional race car driver. The last time she formally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[411,42,16],"class_list":["post-14585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-danica-patrick","tag-daytona-500","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Patrick-2018MENCS-CarShot.jpg?fit=3857%2C2566&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3Nf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14585"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14589,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585\/revisions\/14589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}